Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

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Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 3 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 4 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 5 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 6 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 7 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

Image 8 of 18

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring that other loop around Houston set on top of other cities to compare size.

Photo: MAPfrappe / Google Maps

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of...

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Dallas-Fort Worth

Photo: Google Maps

Dallas-Fort Worth

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Austin

Photo: Google Maps

Austin

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London

Photo: Google Maps

London

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San Antonio

Photo: Google Maps

San Antonio

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Washington, D.C.

Photo: Google Maps

Washington, D.C.

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Chicago

Photo: Google Maps

Chicago

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Mexico City

Photo: Google Maps

Mexico City

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Professionals at the Two Allen Center in downtown Houston walk by a large model of the Beltway 8 during an art exhibition titled "The Art of Transportation" organized by the Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Department, Monday, Feb. 10, 2014.

Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle

Professionals at the Two Allen Center in downtown Houston walk by a...

Houston's Beltway 8 is really, really big, according to a series of viral maps featuring Houston's other, bigger loop set on top of other cities as a size comparison.

Of course, Houstonians already know how big it is. We've all spent time stuck in our cars on the 88-mile belt, either on its feeders or on the Sam Houston Tollway itself, the parts we have to pay tolls for still. No wonder we love our cars so much.

Using the MAPfrappe Google Map application, you can see that Beltway 8 could cover most Manhattan, plus Queens, Brooklyn, most of Staten Island, and even a great deal of New Jersey's eastern side. About two Beltways could cover the state of Rhode Island. On the West Coast, the Beltway can cover San Francisco, Oakland, and most San Fransisco Bay.

You can use the web tool to compare most anything on the map with something else. The contiguous United States can fit into the top of the continent of Africa, for one.

The Beltway can fully contain Florida's Lake Okeechobee, along with Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana.

Moving on to more exotic locales, our Beltway easily envelopes Rome, Vatican City, and reaches to the Mediterranean Sea to the west of it. The island of Ibiza, that mecca of electronic dance music, can fit inside the Beltway, with room enough to spare to take your yacht out for a few days of Mediterranean Sea exploration. The Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, the same.

Here's a fun fact you have not known: all-girl rock band The Bangles played a special concert at a party marking the opening of the western stretch of the Sam Houston Tollway in the summer of 1989. Maybe when they finish up all of this U.S. 290 construction the Foo Fighters will come and play a free concert.